Legion Art Contest Winners Gallery

We received nearly 500 entries to our Legion Art Gallery and we're thrilled to announce the winners today and highlight their artwork. This was our first art contest and we had so many entries, so we decided to increase the amount of second place prizes from fifteen to twenty.

We've published a gallery with nearly 200 entries and you'll also find many entries on display at the Wowhead Party tonight, November 5th, at 6-11pm on the fifth floor of the Hilton Anaheim.

Below we're highlighting the winning pieces of art, ranging from Demon Hunters to the Emerald Dream to Survival Hunters. We've asked the artists to provide a statement about the inspiration behind their art, and do check out their Deviantart/social media links!

Grand Prize: "The Burning Rage" by TamplierPainter

The most anticipated part of "Legion" for me is demon hunters, so I decided at once that I'd draw them. At the same time, I wanted to depict the ongoing conflict between the Horde and the Alliance.

First Place

Angju: "Light and Shadow"

I intuited that there will be a lot of changes and stories when I heard about World of Warcraft: Legion. In the new expansion, "Legion" with Illidan and demon hunters are back and there will be lot of new heroes in this endless war. Horde and Alliance will be fighting with each other and fight with the greatest evil at the same time. That's why I thought Anduin, who represents the peace, will be the most important person in this war. I want to draw Gul'dan, Anduin and Illidan opposite each other in the same place with their own motives.

Joel Lagerwall: "The Dark Titan"

I thought I would depict a scene where both Alliance and Horde fight together to bring down the dark titan Sargeras. I post regular updates on my Facebook page and my Deviantart for those who are interested in following my journey as a freelance artist. Links below:

Sunstrider: "The Common Enemy"

The idea behind my entry was to show once again how the global threat would bring old allies back together. This time, of course, Illidan will play a major role in the lore of Legion, so I put him fighting 'together' with Malfurion and Tyrande again the legion, like they did 10000 years ago, with the dark titan Sargeras shadowing them with his menacing presence. The first idea was a lot more peaceful, with them staring in the distance as the burning legion kept flowing to azeroth, but I figured that a fighting scene would be much more appealing (at least for me), and with the few details regarding the lore that we have right now, we're not sure if Illidan will actually be helping us or it will be a neutral faction fighting their own war against the legion. If I had to give it a title, it would be 'The Common Enemy' then. The inspiration about art and style was mainly from Wei Wang and Laurel Austin from Blizzard, they are the main reason why I kept drawing these last few years.

Second Place

Atilla Kaan: "The Hatred of Ten Thousand Years"

My inspiration was the return of Illidan. He was and still is my favorite character among them all. I am excited that he gets his chance for redemption. I think he is the one who actually got betrayed because his actions were mostly for his beloved one Tyrande and his people.

In this drawing he caught Sargeras off-guard and reflected his whole hatred to the Titan. He is of course not equal to the mighty Titan at any level but this would either be his greatest sacrifice for the people we think he betrayed, or he is enchanted by some artifacts. Either way he is cracking the Titan's left horn in the drawing. Sargeras was not prepared at all!

Dmitry Vernygor: "The Tomb of Sargeras"

The title of my work is The Tomb of Sargeras. In the foreground I drew Gul'dan that goes to the tomb. In the tomb, I tried to make the Elven elements because it was once the temple of Elune, and demonic.

Frenone: "Eternal Conflict"

The dark, shadowy Demon Hunters chose to use the twisted power of the Burning Legion against them, while the pure golden Val'kyr serve under a God King that plans to cooperate with the Burning Legion to obtain one of the Pillars of Creation. This eternal battle between Dark and Light formed the inspiration for this piece.

Genesisnx: "Heralds of the Legion"

I was always acutely interested in what it was Khadgar might have seen, when he made his venture to the broken isle, and couldn’t pass up the chance to show off some titanic world-ending demons in what would have been the first wave of a full on invasion, all under the watchful eye of the burning shadow.

Gibbylicious: "Hotfiyah"

My inspiration was my hunter, which is my main toon. I've always loved, back in the days, how cool hunters looked with a melee weapon so when it was announced that it was happening again I was stoked! I then picked everything that I liked from the Legion presentation (the artifact spears, and the reddish environment that they showed ... Very mysterious looking) and mixed it up with my favourite things about hunters today... In this case, the tier 6 set (which is the best hunter set and one of the coolest sets in game still) and my hunter pets. Just the idea of fighting up close with my pet is very thrilling to me! Plus the changes happening to the hunter class are looking awesome. I can't wait!!

Anyways, I never thought of a name so if I must I'll just name it after my hunter: Hotfiyah !!

Hagmann Art: "The Ashbringers"

I've always loved the Ashbringer lore and Undead storyline in Warcraft. I decided to show a clash between the Ashbringer and the Corrupted Ashbringer, as players will finally have access to both versions of the sword come Legion. World PVP has always been my favorite part of WoW, so I decided on the theme of a Paladin attempting to cleanse Undercity, while her Deathknight counterpart tries to defend the city. Who is the hero here? That's for you to decide.

Irvast: "Xavius, the First Satyr"

Kasimova: "Val'sharah"

I have read a "Stormrage" book by Richard A. Knaak about 2 months earlier before the contest was announced. I didn't want to make something trivial or "casual" like Illidan or demon hunters, so I ran through the Legion concept gallery and found Val'sharah - a place of peace and harmony between night elves and nature. And then I remembered the Emerald Nightmare in "Stormrage" and Xavius, who wanted to destroy everything, especially Malfurion. That's how I came up with a giant forest and trees in appropriate palette of night elves, and the Emerald Nightmare on the background, which is slowly corrupting all living things.

kennethj86

KoniArt: "The Return"

I wanted to represent the return of two enemies, Maiev and Illidan and the beginning of a new hunt. I have chosen Maiev because I love her charisma, her armor hiding her femininity, her strength and determination.

Leslie Casilli: "Ysera and the Emerald Dream"

It was hard to narrow down what I was most excited for in upcoming Legion expansion. There is so much content that has such great potential! Being a visual artist, I am heavily swayed by graphics and design within a game. When I heard that Legion might feature Emerald Dream lore I was instantly intrigued. I just cannot wait to see what they do with that area, both story-wise and visually. The Emerald Dream is such a cool concept that has the potential to look very unique and beautiful. By far my favorite being from the Emerald Dream is its guardian, Ysera. She is a mysterious and strong female character, and on top of that she is a dragon. I love dragons! I very much hope that she makes a showing in Legion!

Max888

Kirill Raskov: "Duel"

Szabados Zsolt: Demon Hunter

Well i don't have a specific thing that inspired me, but many small and separate things. I am a big Warcraft universe fanboy, love the art style of Blizzard and its story telling. My colleagues inspired me with ideas, we talk a lot about WoW past experiences, and what we would like to see in the game at some point in the future. I'm still just a rookie at all this, but have many artists that inspire and moved me forward to become as good as them, or even better at one point. I am really thankful that I could participate in this contest, and that the community appreciated my work.

Zhadnost: "The Last Hope"

When I started to draw my work I had a lot of different ideas. At this moment I was listening to the soundtrack from Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos, and I started remembering the location, characters, atmosphere. And I decided to show a battle against the main enemy, to show us united. No matter what happened in the past, now Azeroth in dangerous, our home in dangerous. And so I call my work "The last hope" because that union is the last hope for this world.

Комментарий от Pegasus2141

Комментарий от Niixten

Комментарий от XeoTUB

All of these are absolutely fantastic. Every last one. Well done and congratulations!

Комментарий от walkman461

on 2015-11-05T14:56:20-06:00

Shees! So much incredible talent! Wow!

Комментарий от zaxinou

on 2015-11-05T14:57:15-06:00

Damn! There are some amazing pieces here. I can only imagine the hours and the amount of layers that have gone into them. Well done :)

Комментарий от Glog

on 2015-11-05T15:01:53-06:00

Many of these arts depict fake bewbs. Can we get some engineering plans for those?

Комментарий от Wizairde

on 2015-11-05T15:06:04-06:00

Holy cow! SO AMAZING... I don't have a favorite because I'd have a stroke if I was forced to pick. Lol so many talented folks. Though I'm beginning to understand why my stick figure drawing didn't get selected..... Heh wish I could hire some of these folks to do character portraits

Комментарий от lankybrit

on 2015-11-05T15:18:19-06:00

Absolutely amazing work everyone. Congratulations to all the winners. Well deserved.

Комментарий от Karadros

on 2015-11-05T15:18:45-06:00

I don't have a favorite because I'd have a stroke if I was forced to pick.

I'd wager some people will definitely be having a stroke later.

Комментарий от Aralnda

on 2015-11-05T15:29:58-06:00

will the others 300 be up later as well? or can you tell us why not all of them are up?

Комментарий от Saffiosia

on 2015-11-05T15:30:08-06:00

Very nice work and grats to all !

Комментарий от stym

on 2015-11-05T15:31:18-06:00

These artists are absolutely amazing. Congratulations to all who won, and to those who did not!

Комментарий от WoWlower

on 2015-11-05T15:35:05-06:00

So beautiful! I'm jealous !

Комментарий от sacroslash

on 2015-11-05T15:45:13-06:00

Congratulations to all the winners! There's no doubt there's some very talented people in here, and the winning art pieces are truly beautiful.

However, as someone that participated in the contest, I have some things to get off my chest that I found a bit strange. While I understand that everything about this contest was subjective as far as the judging goes, I am kind of put off by the fact that more than half of the art submitted wasn't even shown in a gallery, of some sort? I know a friend of mine that didn't make it into the gallery (I did, which I was honored by, of course), and she is very upset about this fact. This is because we both worked for days straight on our pieces, and held us to the rules as best we could. However, in the gallery are several pieces that do not meet the wallpaper requirement, and even some that's just a modified model from the game or another, and one of the entries in the gallery is literally official art from the game that has been turned black and modified. It seems very unfair that people that don't heed the rules or use art that is not theirs to make the gallery, while a lot of people that put a lot of time and effort into this did not make it.

The other thing I'm confused about is the fact that almost all entries feature Fel or demon hunters or anything like it, with the exception of but a few entries. I find this strange because one of the requirements was originality, and I'd have loved to see some more variation between entries. Right now a big portion of the winning entries are female demon hunters in several states of undress with their chest showing (can't say I'm surprised, really, but it's still a bummer). As originality was one of the requirements, it's weird to me to see a lot of winners that are nothing more than half naked demon huntresses, where there could have been winners that have drawn beautiful landscapes and such that I've seen in the gallery.

TamplierPainter seems quite the lucky guy, as he won the Heroes of the Storm contest recently as well (with some very impressive prizes). My hope is that he could really use the Cintiq, seeing as that was what the grand prize was!

I'm in no way complaining but only voicing what me and I think a lot of other artists have been thinking regarding this contest. We all put a lot of hard work in our entries, so I'd love to see a gallery with ALL the art from the contest, not just around 200 entries. Again, not complaining, and all the winners deserve their loots! Congratulations again. We all worked hard, so I think we all deserve to have a chance at the spotlight in the form of a gallery with all of the entries <3

Комментарий от Ashelia

on 2015-11-05T16:48:49-06:00

I'd like this post to be a celebration of the artwork and hard work everyone who entered put into this contest. Negative comments asking why someone won over a person and comments complaining in general are not the type of atmosphere I want to promote.

I'm not going to be actively moderating existing comments, but if I notice a trend, I will step in. Please guys: remember this is a fun event to celebrate Legion, while you may not think commenting about how a winner is a professional thus shouldn't win is particularly negative, it does bring down the tone of the comment section.

We learned a lot from doing this art contest in general, and I'm pretty excited with what we did learn. In particular, we'd probably want to have one prize that's valuable for amateur hour--a piece that wasn't necessarily the best in terms of composition and skill level, but that really showed a lot of effort. But again, that's just ideas going forward. We are looking for your feedback, I just really don't think anyone wants to make our giveaway super restrictive, like making sure people have a level 100 character to enter (at that point, we're basically discouraging a lot of people to enter, ones who may be passionate about the game and coming back for Legion--plus who's to say they wouldn't just link a friend's Armory if they really wanted to enter?).

Комментарий от tanzine

on 2015-11-05T16:56:47-06:00

I'm amazed at the quality here, some really fantastic entries. All those featured really deserve credit, I'll look at this article again and again.

Комментарий от orca1375x

on 2015-11-05T17:13:19-06:00

The art is amazing!love it all..congrtz to those who won...

Комментарий от TheRedHorse

on 2015-11-05T17:59:27-06:00

These are excellent! Well done!

Комментарий от Lostar

on 2015-11-05T18:15:36-06:00

...We learned a lot from doing this art contest in general, and I'm pretty excited with what we did learn. In particular, we'd probably want to have one prize that's valuable for amateur hour--a piece that wasn't necessarily the best in terms of composition and skill level, but that really showed a lot of effort. But again, that's just ideas going forward. We are looking for your feedback....

Amatuer hour then excludes those of us who (at least before this contest) deemed ourselves as intermediate. It also suggests that you, or the judges, are able to tell who really dedicated a large amount of effort and who did not. That's incredibly difficult, if at all possible, to judge. If wowhead does plan on holding another art contest then I wouldn't have that as a criteria for a prize as tempting as it might be because where is the cut off from someone who is unskilled but has a lot of heart and someone who is under confident of their work but is highly skilled?

Probably the most disheartening thing for me was to see one extremely well known, and already well off (he recently won in the HoTs contest), artist join in to roflstomp us all. But it's a double bladed sword because I love what he did. It's stunning and I have learned a lot by just looking at it like not neglecting the atmospheric lighting and effects. It also prompted me to make a few purchases of his videos so that I can better dissect his methods and perhaps adopt a few of them. In that thought, I am doubly against the idea of amateur hour because after this contest (and losing and having a bit of a broken heart for an evening until I saw other great works that were also not picked then I kinda got over myself. Sucks to still be using a 7 year of Bamboo Fun but I'll use what I got to improve my craft. So please don't exclude those of us who are actively learning from this and putting those lessons to use by altering any future art contests.

I'm glad that most of the winners that I have ran across have a history of being wowfanatics at least and not just art students who did a quick study of Warcraft aesthetics and ran with it. I was concerned about this when, in the original posting of the contest, it was encouraged to get such a crowd on board.